Many challenges were identified, not least of which were lack of investment in infrastructure and development, a reduction in technical capacity in the public sector, and the increasing use of foreign service providers who neither employ nor train local skills. These largely require national policy changes and are not directly the domain of the engineering profession, although the profession should influence national thinking on these topics.
The engineering profession can, however, address three substantial areas of concern, being the lack of:
- Alignment of engineering qualifications
- Structured graduate workplace development
- Alignment of registration processes.
It was hoped that three initiatives would get off the ground in 2020 to address these needs. Sadly, with the advent of Covid, funds were redirected to address pressing challenges at the time and calls for input or participation in these initiatives have never been published. Should your organisation be interested in funding one or more of the initiatives, please submit your details and interests on the Contact Us form.